NETFUTURE Technology and Human Responsibility -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Issue #111 A Publication of The Nature Institute September 12, 2000 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Editor: Stephen L. Talbott (stevet@netfuture.org) On the Web: http://www.netfuture.org/ You may redistribute this newsletter for noncommercial purposes. NetFuture is a reader-supported publication. CONTENTS --------- Editor's Note Fool's Gold: A Critical Look at Computers in Childhood Excerpts from a new publication of decisive importance Children and Computers: A Call for Action Position statement of the Alliance for Childhood DEPARTMENTS Announcements and Resources Alliance for Childhood -- International Conference About this newsletter ========================================================================== EDITOR'S NOTE "Mass delusion" is about the only term I know that is adequate to describe our society's compulsion to sink untold billions of dollars into the computerization of education -- against all reason and without any clear sense of the supposed educational need being addressed. Every voice raised against the delusion has been swallowed up like a whimper in a hurricane. Until now. Finally, I believe, there is beginning to sound a collective voice with the force and gravity to counter the delusion. This morning the Alliance for Childhood conducted a high-profile news conference at Washington's National Press Club, and released its report: "Fool's Gold: A Critical Look at Computers in Childhood". Personally, I think this report is the most significant publication about computers and children since the delusion first seized hold of us. You'll find some excerpts from it below. The Alliance simultaneously issued a "Call to Action", which we reprint here along with a partial list of its initial signers. The Call concludes with seven recommendations, the first of which, restoring some long-absent common-sense to the public discussion, urges: a refocusing in education, at home and school, on the essentials of a healthy childhood: strong bonds with caring adults; time for spontaneous, creative play; a curriculum rich in music and the other arts; reading books aloud; storytelling and poetry; rhythm and movement; cooking, building things, and other handcrafts; and gardening and other hands-on experiences of nature and the physical world. You will find the full text of Fool's Gold (which is also available in printed, nicely bound form) at www.allianceforchildhood.net. For further information send email to info@allianceforchildhood.net or call 301-513-1777. You can register your interest or support at the website -- something I urge you to do. For some additional background about the Alliance, see NF #99. One final note: I have never been quite so moved by a press conference as I was while listening in to this one. What struck me so forcefully was the quiet conviction and depth of sincerity evident in all the presentations -- not exactly what we've learned to expect in most press conferences, especially in an election year. It appeared that all the major journalistic organizations were represented, and you are sure to hear more about this development over the next few days. SLT Goto table of contents ========================================================================== FOOL'S GOLD: A CRITICAL LOOK AT COMPUTERS IN CHILDHOOD Report of the Alliance for Childhood (Following are a few tidbits selected pretty much at random from Fool's Gold: A Critical Look at Computers in Childhood. I am not able to give any sense for the development of the argument in any of the chapters in this 99-page report, nor for the rich variety of sources and research reports it draws from. An outline of the document follows these excerpts. SLT) ** Children ages 2 to 18 spend on average about 4 hours and 45 minutes a day outside of school plugged into electronic media of all kinds. ** "We have the most sedentary generation of young people in American history," warns U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher. ** "My observations in schools are that drugs, crime, hostility, indifference, and insensitivity tend to run rampant in schools that deprive students of instruction in the arts. In the process of overselling science, mathematics, and technology as the panaceas of commerce, schools have denied students something precious: access to their expressive communicative beings and their participation in creating their own world [Charles Fowler]." ** Thomas Sherman of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University has pointed out that educators sensitive to young children's developmental needs actually try to "limit children's access to information by simplifying messages and sequencing contents." Their intent is to avoid overwhelming children with information that is so outside their experience they can neither understand nor assimilate it. ** In early childhood and at least throughout elementary school, [we should] concentrate on developing the child's own inner powers, not exploiting external machine power. ** Behavioral optometrists recommend that children [in first or second grade] learn about letters first through direct physical engagement with them -- perhaps by drawing or painting the letters as big as possible. This takes advantage of the deep perceptual learning that coordinating vision with gross motor skill encourages. Expecting beginning writers to poke a letter key and then passively watch a letter appear on a screen ... may actually hamper the process of learning to write and read. ** Supportive social interactions with more competent language users is "the one constant factor that emerges" in studies of how children become able speakers, readers, and writers, research psychologists Alison Garton and Chris Pratt concluded after an extensive review of the literature .... Too few chances for such communication, if extended throughout childhood, may permanently limit children's ability to express themselves in speech or in writing, to comprehend fully what they read, and even to understand themselves and to think logically and analytically. ** The late Jeanne Chall, who was a leading expert in reading research, observed in more than 300 schools before concluding that the critical factor in interesting children in reading was not the particular method or technology but the teacher. "It was what the teacher did with the method, the materials, and the children rather than the method itself that seemed to make the difference." ** Schools should get serious about ergonomic issues now, says Dr. Margit Bleecker, a neurologist and director of the Center for Occupational and Environmental Neurology in Baltimore...."We know that these things can happen with children," she says, based on the reports of children who injure their hands playing video games. She expects the incidence of repetitive stress injuries in childhood to rise. "It's probably a time bomb waiting to go off." ** Educational psychologist Jane Healy ... notes that creativity involves the ability to generate "personal and original visual, physical, or auditory images -- `mind images' in the words of one child." But she adds: "Teachers find that today's video-immersed children can't form original pictures in their mind or develop an imaginative representation. Teachers of young children lament the fact that many now have to be taught to play symbolically or pretend -- previously a symptom only of mentally or emotionally disordered youngsters." ** "It's not that children are little scientists, but that scientists are big children [Alison Gopnik]." ** Many studies have demonstrated the relevance of what researchers call "sociodramatic play" -- make-believe play involving more than one individual -- to scholastic achievement in many subjects, including reading, writing, science, and arithmetic. Studies have shown, for example, that make-believe and other kinds of play help young children learn to classify objects and group concepts in hierarchies, skills that have proven resistant to formal instruction. Children also test and revise their immature ideas about space, time, probability, and cause-and- effect relations during play. They test hypotheses, draw generalizations, and find creative, divergent ways to solve problems. ** [Arkansas master teacher Sheila G. Flaxman:] "Children have never before been exposed to so much, so early. Play not only allows them to practice with all the new concepts -- social, emotional, moral, and intellectual -- they are learning so rapidly as they develop, but also helps them make sense of, and internalize, all the stimuli to which they are exposed." ** Teachers report that many children of all income levels who have been exposed to heavy diets of television, computers, and other electronic media now enter kindergarten not knowing how to play. ** Studies suggest that children who engage spontaneously and often in make-believe tend to be proficient at solving problems that have no one, simple solution. ** Marilyn Benoit, president-elect of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, has coined the term "dot-com kids" to describe the negative impact on children of being able to command so many entertaining images and messages with just a click of the mouse. Children's brains, she suggests, are overstimulated by the pace and attention-grabbing nature of multimedia technology. She notes the rise in diagnoses of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and asks whether it is related to "children's constant exposure to rapid-fire stimuli to the brain." ** Nature trains all of a child's senses, and encourages reflection and acute observation, which later support scientific insight and precision in thinking. The noise and flash of electronic media demand the child's attention. In contrast, the silence and subtle beauties of the natural world encourage children to focus their attention for themselves. This kind of self-motivated attention is critical for persisting in learning tasks of all kinds. Traditional cultures have long recognized the subtle qualities of nature as powerful teaching tools. Among the Lakota people of North America, for example, children "were taught to use their sense of smell, to look where there was apparently nothing to see, and to listen intently when all seemingly was quiet [William Crain]." ** [Regarding the educational essentials discussed in Chapter 3 of the report:] Each supports the development of the full range of a child's human gifts, not just the intellect. Each is strongly supported by research and practical experience. Each was already endangered in schools before the current enthusiasm for computers. Each is even more threatened by the new emphasis on computers. Each is especially critical to the education of our most socially and economically disadvantaged children. Likewise, when computers replace them, the loss most harms our most at-risk children. ** "Nearly half of the staff development courses are now basic computer training," observed Lowell Monke in 1997, speaking of the Des Moines (Iowa) Public Schools, where he was then teaching advanced technology classes. "As I listen to teachers and administrators discussing educational issues now, as opposed to three years ago, I hear much less attention directed toward what is going on inside our students, and much more toward what goes on with the tools they use." ** There is absolutely no evidence that the lack of computer technology in elementary school poses any threat at all to a child's development. ** Once we recover from the illusion that technical innovations will revive education, the really critical conversation can begin: How can we tackle the social obstacles to children's healthy development with renewed social commitment? Chapter outlines --------------- Chapter 1. Healthy Children: Lessons from Research on Child Development The beginnings of life Emotions and the intellect The essential human touch The dangers of premature "brain" work Learning about the real world Chapter 2. Developmental Risks: The Hazards of Computers in Childhood Hazards to children's physical health Musculoskeletal injuries; vision problems; lack of exercise and obesity; toxic emissions and electromagnetic radiation Risks to emotional and social development Isolated lives; new sage on the stage; less self-motivation; detachment from community; the commercialization of childhood Risks to creativity and intellectual development Stunted imagination; loss of wonder; impaired language and literacy; poor concentration; little patience for hard work; plagiarism; distraction from meaning Risks to moral development A massive national experiment Chapter 3. Childhood Essentials: Fostering the Full Range of Human Capacities Close, loving relationships with responsible adults Outdoors activity, gardening, and other direct encounters with nature Time for unstructured play, especially make-believe play Music, drama, puppetry, dance, painting, and the other arts Hands-on lessons, handcrafts, and other physically engaging activities Conversation, poetry, storytelling, and books read aloud with adults Chapter 4. Technology Literacy: Educating Children to Create Their Own Future Develop the young child's own inner powers Teach ethics and responsibility Teach the fundamentals of how computers work Teach the history of technology as a social force The goal of technology literacy Chapter 5. Real Costs: Computers Distract Us from Children's Needs The real costs of educational technology Flawed assumptions The politics of technomania The commercial blitz: a mega-scam The dog that didn't bark Children's real unmet needs Eliminating lead poisoning Other pressing needs of our most at-risk children Critical needs of our public schools A new conversation Chapter 6. Conclusions and Recommendations Goto table of contents ========================================================================== CHILDREN AND COMPUTERS: A CALL FOR ACTION Position Statement -- Alliance for Childhood Computers are reshaping children's lives, at home and at school, in profound and unexpected ways. Common sense suggests that we consider the potential harm, as well as the promised benefits, of this change. Computers pose serious health hazards to children. The risks include repetitive stress injuries, eyestrain, obesity, social isolation, and, for some, long-term damage to physical, emotional, or intellectual development. Our children, the Surgeon General warns, are the most sedentary generation ever. Will they thrive spending even more time staring at screens? Children need stronger personal bonds with caring adults. Yet powerful technologies are distracting children and adults from each other. Children need time for active, physical play; hands-on lessons of all kinds, especially in the arts; and direct experience of the natural world. Research shows these are not frills but are essential for healthy child development. Yet many schools have cut already minimal offerings in these areas to shift time and money to expensive, unproven technology. The emphasis on technology is distracting us from the urgent social and educational needs of low income children. M.I.T. Professor Sherry Turkle has asked: "Are we using computer technology not because it teaches best but because we have lost the political will to fund education adequately?" Given the high costs and clear hazards, we call for a moratorium on the further introduction of computers in early childhood and elementary education. We call for families, schools, and communities to refocus on the essentials of a healthy childhood. And we call for a broad public discussion about these critical issues. Let's examine the claims about computers and children more closely: * * Do computers really motivate children to learn faster and better? * Children must start learning on computers as early as possible, we are told, to get a jump-start on success. But 30 years of research on educational technology has produced just one clear link between computers and children's learning. Drill-and-practice programs appear to improve scores modestly -- though not as much or as cheaply as one-on-one tutoring -- on some standardized tests, in narrow skill areas, notes Larry Cuban of Stanford University. "Other than that," says Cuban, former president of the American Educational Research Association, "there is no clear, commanding body of evidence that students' sustained use of multimedia machines, the Internet, word processing, spreadsheets, and other popular applications has any impact on academic achievement." The sheer power of information technologies may actually hamper young children's intellectual growth. What is good for adults and older students is often inappropriate for youngsters. Face-to-face conversation with more competent language users, for example, is the one constant factor in studies of how children become expert speakers, readers, and writers. Time for real talk with parents and teachers is critical. Similarly, academic success requires focused attention, listening, and persistence. The computer -- like the TV -- can be a mesmerizing babysitter. But many children, overwhelmed by the volume of data and flashy special effects of the World Wide Web and much software, have trouble focusing on any one task. And a new study from the American Association of University Women casts doubt on the claim that computers automatically motivate learning. Many girls, it found, are bored by computers. And many boys seem more interested in violent video games than educational software. * * Must five-year-olds be trained on computers today to get the high-paying * jobs of tomorrow? * For a relatively small number of children with certain disabilities, technology offers benefits. But for the majority, computers pose health hazards and potentially serious developmental problems. Of particular concern is the growing incidence of disabling repetitive stress injuries among college students who began using computers in childhood. The technology in schools today will be obsolete long before five-year- olds graduate. Creativity and imagination are the prerequisites for innovative thinking, which will never be obsolete. Yet a heavy diet of ready-made computer images and programmed toys appears to stunt imaginative thinking. Teachers report that children in our electronic society are becoming alarmingly deficient in generating their own images and ideas. * * Do computers really "connect" children to the world? * Too often, what computers actually connect children to are trivial games, inappropriate adult material, and aggressive advertising. They can also isolate children, emotionally and physically, from direct experience of the natural world. The "distance" education they promote is the opposite of what all children, and especially children at risk, need most -- close relationships with caring adults. Research shows that strengthening bonds between teachers, students, and families is a powerful remedy for troubled students and struggling schools. Overemphasizing technology can weaken those bonds. The National Science Board reported in 1998 that prolonged exposure to computing environments may create "individuals incapable of dealing with the messiness of reality, the needs of community building, and the demands of personal commitments." In the early grades, children need live lessons that engage their hands, hearts, bodies, and minds -- not computer simulations. Even in high school, where the benefits of computers are more clear, too few technology classes emphasize the ethics or dangers of online research and communication. Too few help students develop the critical skills to make independent judgments about the potential for the Internet -- or any other technology -- to have negative as well as positive social consequences. Our Conclusion: Those who place their faith in technology to solve the problems of education should look more deeply into the needs of children. The renewal of education requires personal attention to students from good teachers and active parents, strongly supported by their communities. It requires commitment to developmentally appropriate education and attention to the full range of children's real, low-tech needs -- physical, emotional, and social, as well as cognitive. Therefore, we call for: 1: A refocusing in education, at home and school, on the essentials of a healthy childhood: strong bonds with caring adults; time for spontaneous, creative play; a curriculum rich in music and the other arts; reading books aloud; storytelling and poetry; rhythm and movement; cooking, building things, and other handcrafts; and gardening and other hands-on experiences of nature and the physical world. 2: A broad public dialogue on how the emphasis on computers affects the real needs of children, especially children in low-income families. 3: A comprehensive report by the U.S. Surgeon General on the full extent of physical, emotional, and other developmental hazards computers pose to children. 4: Full disclosure by information-technology companies about the physical hazards to children of using their products. 5: A halt to the commercial hyping of harmful or useless technology for children. 6: A new emphasis on ethics, responsibility, and critical thinking in teaching older students about the personal and social effects of technology. 7: An immediate moratorium on the further introduction of computers in early childhood and elementary education, except for special cases of students with disabilities. Such a time-out is necessary to create the climate for the above recommendations to take place. Signed by: (Organizations included for identification purposes only.) [Editor's note: this is not the final list of signers.] Joan Almon, former kindergarten teacher and U.S. coordinator, Alliance for Childhood Jeffrey Anshel, O.D., Corporate Vision Consulting, and author, Visual Ergonomics in the Workplace Alison Armstrong, author, The Child and the Machine: How Computers Put Our Children's Education at Risk Marilyn Benoit, M.D., child and adolescent psychiatrist, Howard University Hospital, and president-elect of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (Dr. Benoit's signature, as noted above, does not reflect an endorsement of this statement by the academy.) Margit L. Bleecker, M.D., Ph.D., neurologist, specialist in repetitive stress injuries, and director, Center for Occupational and Environmental Neurology in Baltimore Hank Bromley, Ph.D., associate professor of education and director, Center for the Study of Technology in Education, State University of New York at Buffalo; editor, Education/Technology/Power: Education Computing as a Social Practice Chet Bowers, educator and author, Let Them Eat Data: How Computers Affect Education, Cultural Diversity, and the Prospects of Ecological Sustainability, and The Culture of Denial: Why the Environmental Movement Needs a Strategy for Reforming Universities and Public Schools Sandra Campbell, researcher on computers in education, and the role of the arts and imagination in positive social learning; and educational consultant, Viva Associates Fritjof Capra, Ph.D., physicist and author of The Tao of Physics, and Web of Life Ian Chunn, program director, Centre for Distance Education, Simon Fraser University Rhonda Clements, Ed.D., President, The American Association for the Child's Right to Play Brendan Connell, student, Harvard University (Mr. Connell developed repetitive stress injuries related to computer use while a student at Blair High School in Montgomery County, MD) Colleen Cordes, writer, co-coordinator of Task Force on Computers in Childhood, Alliance for Childhood Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, professor of psychology and management and director of the Quality of Life Research Center at Claremont Graduate University, and author, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience Larry Cuban, Ph.D., professor of education, Stanford University, and former president, the American Educational Research Association O. Fred Donaldson, Ph.D., play specialist, Moreno Valley Unified School District Hubert L. Dreyfus, professor of philosophy, University of California at Berkeley, and author, On the Internet: Nihilism on Line (in press) Elliot Eisner, Lee Jacks professor of education and professor of art at Stanford University; former president of the American Educational Research Association, the National Art Education Association, and the International Society for Education Through Art; and author, The Kind of Schools We Need Oscar H. Gandy, Jr., Ph.D., Herbert I. Schiller professor of communication at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania Simson L. Garfinkel, chief technology officer, Sandstorm Enterprises, Inc., and author, Database Nation: The Death of Privacy in the 21st Century Claire Ryle Garrison, director, Whole Child Initiative, State of the World Forum John Taylor Gatto, former New York State Teacher of the Year, and author, Dumbing Us Down, and The Underground History of American Education: A School Teacher's Intimate Investigation Into the Problem of Modern Schooling (in press) Chellis Glendinning, Ph.D., psychologist and author, When Technology Wounds Jane Goodall, Ph.D., primate researcher and founder, Jane Goodall Institute -- U.K. Harold Howe II, retired educator, former U.S. Commissioner of Education and vice president of Ford Foundation for Education, Harvard education faculty Philip Incao, M.D., primary care physician and founder, Colorado Alliance for Childhood Henry C. Johnson, Jr., Ph.D., professor emeritus in education theory and policy, Pennsylvania State University Jeffrey Kane, Ph.D., dean, School of Education, C.W. Post Campus, Long Island University, and editor, Education, Information and Transformation: Essays on Learning and Thinking Stephen Kline, Ph.D., professor in the School of Communication, Simon Fraser University, and author, Out of the Garden: Toys, TV, and Children's Culture in the Age of Marketing Diane Levin, Ph.D., professor of education, Wheelock College, and author, Remote Control Childhood Susan Linn, Ed.D., associate director, the Media Center at Judge Baker Children's Center, and instructor in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School Jerry Mander, program director, Foundation for Deep Ecology; president, International Forum on Globalization; and author, In the Absence of the Sacred: The Failure of Technology and the Survival of the Indian Nations Bill McKibben, author of The Age of Missing Information Deborah W. Meier, principal, Mission Hill School, Boston Public Schools Edward Miller, Ed.M., educational policy analyst, former editor of the Harvard Education Letter, and co-coordinator, Task Force on Computers in Childhood, Alliance for Childhood Marita Moll, researcher and analyst of educational-technology policies, and author, Tech High; Globalization and the Future of Canadian Education Lowell Monke, Ph.D., former award-winning teacher of advanced technology classes in the Des Moines Public Schools and former member of Des Moines' Technology Steering Committee, now assistant professor of education, Wittenberg University; co-author, Breaking Down the Digital Walls: Learning to Teach in a Post-Modem World (in press) Thomas Moore, former psychotherapist and author, Care of the Soul: A Guide for Cultivating Depth and Sacredness in Everyday Life David Noble, Ph.D., professor of social science, York University, and author, "Digital Diploma Mills" and The Religion of Technology Douglas Noble, Ph.D., senior research associate, SUNY-Geneseo, and author, The Classroom Arsenal: Military Research, Information Technology, and Public Education David Orr, Ph.D., chair, Environmental Studies Program at Oberlin College, and author, Earth in Mind: On Education, Environment and the Human Prospect Maria Papadakis, Ph.D., director, Institute for the Social Assessment of Information Technology, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. (Dr. Papadakis was the author of Chapter Eight: Economic and Social Significance of Information Technologies, for the U.S. National Science Board's official biennial report, Science & Engineering Indicators -- 1998. The chapter summarized the research on the impacts of information technology on K-12 student learning.) Mary Pipher, Ph.D., psychologist and author, Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls, and The Shelter of Each Other: Rebuilding Our Families Neil Postman, Ph.D., chair, Department of Culture and Communications, New York University, and author, Technopoly, The End of Education: Redefining the Value of School, and The Disappearance of Childhood Alvin F. Poussaint, M.D., director, the Media Center at Judge Baker Children's Center and clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School Deborah Quilter, RSI prevention consultant and author, The Repetitive Strain Injury Recovery Book Raffi, singer, founder, the Troubadour Institute Diane Ravitch, Ph.D., research professor, New York University, and former assistant secretary of education, responsible for the U.S. Office of Educational Research and Improvement Beth Rosenberg, consumer technology journalist, especially on issues involving young children and CD-ROMs Theodore Roszak, Ph.D., professor of history, California State University- Hayward, and author of The Cult of Information Rustum Roy, Ph.D., Evan Pugh professor of the solid state and director of the Science, Technology, and Society programs, Penn State University Gary Ruskin, M.P.P., director, Commercial Alert Dorothy St. Charles, leadership specialist for the Milwaukee Public Schools and former principal Barry Sanders, Ph.D., professor of English and history of ideas, Pitzer College and author of A is for Ox: The Collapse of Literacy and the Rise of Violence in an Electronic Age Richard Sclove, Ph.D., M.S., founder, The Loka Institute, and author, Democracy and Technology David Shenk, author of Data Smog: Surviving the Information Glut; and The End of Patience: Cautionary Notes on the Information Revolution Douglas Sloan, Ph.D., professor of history and education, Teachers College, Columbia University and editor of The Computer in Education: A Critical Perspective Clifford Stoll, Ph.D., astronomer and author, High Tech Heretic and The Cuckoo's Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage (October, 2000) Stephen Talbott, senior researcher, The Nature Institute, and editor of NetFuture, an online newsletter on technology and human responsibility Betsy Taylor, executive director, Center for a New American Dream Frank Vespe, executive director, TV-Turnoff Network Joseph Weizenbaum, Ph.D., professor emeritus of computer science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and author, Computer Power and Human Reason: From Judgment to Calculation Frank R. Wilson, M.D., medical director, Health Program for Performing Artists, University of California at San Francisco, and author, The Hand: How It's Use Shapes the Brain, Language, and Human Culture Langdon Winner, Ph.D., professor of political science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and author, The Whale and the Reactor: A Search for Limits in an Age of High Technology, and Autonomous Technology Pei-hsuan Wu, lab manager and technology assistant, Saint Mark's School, San Rafael, CA Arthur Zajonc, Ph.D., professor of physics, Amherst College, and author, Catching the Light: The Entwined History of Light and Mind, and co-author, The Quantum Challenge: Modern Research on the Foundations of Quantum Mechanics Goto table of contents ========================================================================== ANNOUNCEMENTS AND RESOURCES Alliance for Childhood -- International Conference -------------------------------------------------- A large-scale conference on "The Rights of Children -- A Bridge to the Future" will be held October 11-14 in Brussels, Belgium. Organized by the Alliance for Childhood and sponsored by a long list of European organizations that are Alliance "partners", the conference is founded upon this shared concern: The environment in which our children live is under threat and needs to be protected .... Do we not ... need a new global consciousness of the right to childhood .... Hasn't the time come to form a worldwide lobby on behalf of children, who cannot do this for themselves? The conference features an impressive array of speakers on topics related to child development, children's rights, medical issues (addictions, attention deficit disorder), family life, technology, violence, play, and various other topics. For further information, contact: Alliance for Childhood p/a Lange Lozanastraat 117 B-2018 Antwerpen Phone: 03/2378710 Fax: 03/2571654 Email: internatalliance.childhood@online.be Goto table of contents ========================================================================== ABOUT THIS NEWSLETTER Copyright 2000 by The Nature Institute. You may redistribute this newsletter for noncommercial purposes. You may also redistribute individual articles in their entirety, provided the NetFuture url and this paragraph are attached. NetFuture is supported by freely given reader contributions, and could not survive without them. For details and special offers, see http://netfuture.org/support.html . Current and past issues of NetFuture are available on the Web: http://netfuture.org/ To subscribe or unsubscribe to NetFuture: http://netfuture.org/subscribe.html. Steve Talbott :: NetFuture #111 :: September 12, 2000 Goto table of contents